Corruption and Demoralization ⁽¹⁾

If we define corruption logically, we say that the corrupt concept is the concept that is not straightened to the logic of the mind and does not commensurate with what has been imprinted in the minds’ instincts of the axioms that are used to prove things, and are in no need for proofs. And if we say that man is the only being that was given the mind to be the conscience of God and his successor in this existence, he is also the only being who was given the freedom of choice so that the laws that drive him are not deterministic laws like the laws that drive disposition, orbits, and galaxies. In this way the essence of freedom is an innate predisposition in the nature of man since the beginning of creation. Freedom to the mind is like light to the eye, letter to the meaning, and melody to the harp. The sun is luminous by its nature; likewise, freedom is responsible by its nature. The wisdom of Hermes taught us that all creation is binary, and that everything in it needs something to be paired with to move from existence by potential to actual existence (so that God alone having no equal is distinguished with individualism). This is why freedom was virtually non-existent except in the frame of responsibility.  And what is ethics in fact other than the outcome of this pairing between the mind and freedom on one hand and freedom and responsibility on the other hand. 

Then the triangle of Hermes wisdom is complete: mind, freedom, responsibility; three hypostases in one essence which is divine extraction that gives man his human identity and makes him the only ethical and moral creature among all creations, and makes him entrusted with his self and with all other creations. So was man worthy of the trust or did he frown, turn away and was stubborn, arrogant, disobedient, and defiant!  

{And whoso doeth good an atom’s weight will see it then, and whoso doeth ill an atom’s weight will see it then} which came in the dear Book of Allah is but a reminder to man that he is free in his choices and is responsible for these choices, and that God did not create man for no reason. What also came in the dear Book of Allah: {And of the grace of your Lord, speak}, and is there a grace equivalent to the grace of the free responsible mind that aims at ethics, morality and the essence of the self-evident truths?   

Is there a grace equivalent to that of travelling in the sea of Gnostic knowledge where the gleams of the evidential virtues and the unveiling of the lights and meanings of the Eternal One and Only? Is there a grace equivalent to that of communicating with the Divinity by means of the mind and the soul, like the fragrance communicates with its roses and the scent with its violets and the longing with its beloved? And is there a rejection of the Divine grace equivalent to stubbornness, arrogance, harm, destruction and dissatisfaction with what we have and what we are and our ever continuous seeking in twisted ways for more, and our dissatisfaction in being where we are and our quest to go to a farther and more distant place, and the confiscation of people’s minds and their freedom, and forbidding them from achieving their humanity through the acquisition of knowledge and the practice of work and the purposeful moving towards progress and ascension?   

Is there a rejection of the grace of God equivalent to what the West has done? Modernity and globalization separated between knowledge and virtue; knowledge increased to the extent of flooding, and the spring of virtue dwindled so that the souls became desolate, the conscience barren, and the instinct of ownership unleashed, so it turned man into a ferocious beast that does not only kill to eat because of hunger, but it kills to take pleasure in torturing its victims and displaying its strength and hostile predispositions.  Knowledge that walks on its head and does not walk on its feet turns man from an inherently free, responsible, social, and reasoning being to a consumed being even to the maximum extent of greed in consumption. 

 According to the utopia of the philosopher al-Farabi: Virtue is standing at the degree of things and simulating the object to its inborn nature. Since the inborn nature of abundance is generosity and giving, the inborn nature of poverty is abstinence and sense of honor, the inborn nature of power is chivalry and amnesty, and the inborn nature of authority is justice and setting things right, as for the inborn nature of the parish is obedience and loyalty.

Where are we today from simulating the nature of things and inspiring its inborn nature? For God said in His dear Book: {Consider, O men endowed with understanding}, where the intention was that man looks with his eye of insight to the course of things in the context of nature and society, and infers lessons by the logic of his mind and subtle taste. If we look today at (what is being done) with its modernity that has gone too far in corrupt consumption to the extent of reaching the degree of greed and mad rush to desires, it was not content in its self immoderation but it also tried and is still trying to disseminate its methodology and globalize it to include the whole humanity. From the spreading of sexual indecency and dissoluteness so that love and devotion became a cause for ridicule and mockery, and abstinence a sign of backwardness and intolerance, to the dismantling of the family and the desecration of all the taboos so that the philosophy of the modern man and the sign of his existence is what Jean-Paul Sartre said in his book, Nausea: "I refuse, therefore I exist". Did we reach a time where rejection of religious and mental values, and where man’s corruption of his inborn nature and what has been imprinted in the essence of his self of the fundamental truths a sign of our presence and its proof?! Have we come to a time where the immune human being to sexual dissoluteness and drug abuse is a retarded and fanatic person, while the person who does not regard any inviolability to his female relatives and neighbors, and has neglected the values of his society by planting chaos, loss and dispersion, and going along with passions and unleashing the instincts and violating people’s honor and their property become the mark of the person who goes along with the spirit of the age in modernity and globalization? ??!

The English philosopher, "Hobbes," has said that human nature is a lupine nature; that delights in snatching things from others by intrusion and violation and hates to take based on dialogue, understanding and exchange. He inherently seeks to control and violate and monopolize goods for himself and his descendants, this is his joy and happiness. We the sons of Monotheism and Gnosticism say that human happiness is in the acquisition of knowledge that is in harmony with the logic of the mind and its fundamental truths, and in the quest to build a just and balanced society where every individual is present in the place of his capabilities and competencies. We the children of the mind and not the children of racial and class prejudices and lupine instincts. Therefore, our happiness is part of the happiness of others, and our dignity is part of their dignity. Our motto is peace be upon you, and our principle is saying the truth and justice which is moderation and the mind which is the insight and knowledge of the degree of things and stopping at its limits.

Contributed in the preparation of the text, Kamal Sarieddine
Issued in 2 Dhu al-Qada 1431 Hijra Corresponding to 8/11/2010

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